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Marquess
Date Munenari
伊達宗城
Marquess Date Munenari ; 伊達宗城
	Daimyo Date Munenari
Lord of Uwajima
	In office; 1844–1858
Preceded by	Date Munetada
Succeeded by	Date Mune'e
Personal details
Born	September 1, 1818; Edo, Japan
Died	December 20, 1892 (aged 74)

Date Munenari (伊達宗城, September 1, 1818 – December 20, 1892) was the eighth head of the Uwajima Domain during the Late Tokugawa shogunate and a politician of the early Meiji era.

Early life

Munenari was born in Edo, the 4th son of the hatamoto Yamaguchi Naokatsu.^[1] Munenari, then known as Kamesaburō 亀三郎, was a candidate for adoption by the heirless 7th generation Uwajima lord Date Munetada because Naokatsu's father was the 5th Uwajima lord, Date Muratoki.^[2]

Clan leader

Munenari succeeded to headship in 1844. The tairō Ii Naosuke ordered Munenari's retirement in 1858. He was placed under house arrest.

He returned to prominence in the subsequent years of political maneuvering in Kyoto, as a member of the conciliatory kōbu-gattai (公武合体 union of court and bakufu) party. Late in Bunkyū 3 (1863), as a proponent of kōbu-gattai, he was made a member of the imperial advisory council (sanyō-kaigi 参与会議), together with Matsudaira Katamori and other like-minded lords.^[2]

National leader

After the fall of the shogunate in 1868, Munenari took an active role in the new imperial government; Uwajima as a domain was also deeply involved in the military campaign of the Boshin War (1868–1869).

Munenari was a crucial figure in Japan's international relations during the early Meiji period. In 1871, representing the Japanese government, he signed the Sino-Japanese Friendship and Trade Treaty (Nisshin shukō jōki (日清修好条規)) with Li Hongzhang, a viceroy of Qing Dynasty China.

Also in 1871, the han system was abolished in Japan, and he was able to fully cut his political ties to Uwajima. In 1881, Munenari entertained King Kalākaua, of the Kingdom of Hawaii, on the first state visit to Japan of an actual head of state in its recorded history.^[3] He was first created a count in the new peerage system, but was later promoted to marquess.

Munenari died at Imado in Tokyo in 1892, at age 75.

Gallery

Sino-Japanese Friendship and Trade Treaty, 13 September 1871. The treaty was signed in Tientsin, by Date Munenari and Li Hongzhang
Tomb of Date Munenari (right) in Uwajima (宇和島等覚寺)
The emblem (mon) of the Date clan
The Marquis Date Munenari

Ancestry

^[4]

Ancestors of Date Munenari

16. Date Muratoshi, 4th Lord of Uwajima (1705-1735)

8. Date Muratoki, 5th Lord of Uwajima (1725-1794)

17. Date Tomiko

4. Yamaguchi Naokiyo (1754-1793)

9. Tanaka

2. Yamaguchi Naokatsu (1777-1825)

5. Yamaguchi Yoshiko

1. Date Munenari

3. Sawagi

Notes

^ Date Munenari 伊達宗城. Date Munenari zaikyō nikki. (Tokyo: Nihon shiseki kyōkai 日本史籍協会, 1916), p. 1
^ ^a ^b (in Japanese) 幕末維新新選組伊達宗城
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-08-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Genealogy". Reichsarchiv (in Japanese). 7 May 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2017.

References

Date Munenari 伊達宗城. Date Munenari zaikyō nikki. Tokyo: Nihon shiseki kyōkai 日本史籍協会, 1916.
Nihonshi Jiten 日本史辞典. Tokyo: Ōbunsha 旺文社, 2000.
Much of this article has been compiled from corresponding content on the Japanese Wikipedia.